SOUTH
AFRICAN ARTS IN DISARRAY: One South African artist applies
to start a porn site so he can finance his art. Thus the extent
of "the frustrations felt by many over the state of the arts
in South Africa, where the only certainty is uncertainty. Will
the country's last remaining permanent orchestra, the KwaZulu-Natal
Philharmonic, still be around in 2001? Will Pretoria's State Theatre
survive? Will lottery funding help to revive the performing arts?
Will SA arts and culture help brand the country as a tourist destination
and as the export product it once was during its theatrical high
point in the '70s and '80s?
Sunday Times (South Africa) 07/30/00

WE
DON'T DO BODY PARTS: Singapore's arts scene is tightly controlled
by the government. Last month a production of "The Vagina
Monologues" was banned by the censors. "The actors submitted
the script, including stage directions. Part of the performance
involved briefly projecting a picture of a vagina as a backdrop.
Choo says the performance could have proceeded without the image
but the theatre group refused a change. They were denied a license
and will probably lose any government funding."New
Zealand Herald 07/31/00

EVERYONE'S
A CRITIC: "The Australia Council has just thrown a shirtful
of public money at an advertising agency to tell the arts community
that it has to stop being "elitist" and make everyone
feel relaxed and comfortable about the arts. Presumably when everyone
is convinced that fingerpainting and being Richard Tognetti are
equally easy, they'll start queuing for Schoenberg. It's enough
to make me throw the papers across the room. But I don't. I heckle,
silently. Well, almost silently. I do a lot of muttering."
Sydney Morning Herald 07/31/00

Sunday July 30

JOIN
THIS: Statistics say that Americans are joining groups in
fewer numbers - from bowling leagues to the Boy Scouts, we're
not the "joiners" we once were. Is this a bad thing?
Is our sense of community slipping? "A curious thing about
this decline of community - or of 'social capital,' to use the
favored public-policy term - is that America appears to be awash
in 'community.' "
Boston Globe 07/30/00

Friday July 28

MEDIA
LAB COMES TO DUBLIN: Tod Machover and MIT's thinky Media Lab
have set up shop in Ireland. "They believe Dublin will host
the creation of an entirely new, large-scale art form that combines
a variety of media. 'We need to figure out what comes after theatre,
what comes after cinema,' Machover says. 'We're hoping to develop
a large part of it in Ireland.' "
Irish Times 07/28/00

MILLENNIUM
DOME SOLD: Nomura will buy London's boondoggle Dome and turn
it into a "state-of-the-art entertainment park using the
latest in electronic effects and devices, and developing a further
tranche of 50 acres around the site to offer shops restaurants
cafes and a 'Camden Lock' ambience." London
Evening Standard 07/28/00

Thursday July 27

THE
CULTURE WARS: "There is a direct connection between the
ethics of a society and its architecture and art. Today's culture
of ugliness and 'geography of nowhere' need to be replaced by
a physical and cultural environment that enchants life, inspires
faith, and encourages learning. The spiritual and evangelical
communion more and more Americans seek requires a cultural language
that artists and poets alone can provide." The
Idler 07/27/00

HIGH
RENTS FORCE ARTISTS OUT: "The exodus of artists from
Santa Monica has been both rapid and dramatic. When consultants
hired to gauge the extent of the problem conducted a survey of
artists’ spaces in May, there were 156 live/work and studio spaces
left in the city. After the report on “Strategies To Preserve
and Enhance Affordable Artist Housing and Studio Space” was typed
up, the number had dropped to 117. By the time the final draft
was presented to Santa Monica’s Arts Commission on July 10, there
were only 78 studios left, half the number just two months ago."
LA WEEKLY
07/27/00

A
MATTER OF QUALITY TEACHING: A debate rages in Australia about
the value - or lack thereof - of a liberal arts degree. But those
defending the idea of a liberal arts education are missing a crucial
point, writes one critic. The fact is, he says, is that the quality
of liberal arts teaching is low in Australian universities because
the schools don't pay enough to attract quality teachers. Sydney
Morning Herald 07/27/00

Wednesday July 26

"ARTS
MAYOR" TO THE RESCUE: Thomas Menino, Boston's self-styled
arts mayor, wants desperately to help out the city's baseball
team. "In a plan championed by the mayor's Office of Cultural
Affairs, Menino effectively told Boston's struggling artists
the following: If you help me drum up support for subsidized
housing for the Sox, there might be some cash in it for you."
Boston Herald 07/26/00

EXHIBITION
ETHICS:
“Do you cancel a play if it provokes violence on the streets?
Do you accept an exhibition of paintings collected by a businessman
jailed for defrauding shareholders?” Such ethical dilemmas were
discussed Monday at 'Turn up the Heat', an ethics conference
of arts administrators in Sydney.Sydney
Morning Herald 07/26/00

ARTS
WINDFALL:
Britain’s Culture Secretary Chris Smith unveiled a huge funding
package for the arts Tuesday to rejuvenate the country’s arts
infrastructures - regional theatres in particular - that have
suffered tremendously during more than twenty years of lackluster
government support. The Arts Council of England will receive
an extra £100m a year from 2003, the biggest increase in funding
in its 44-year history. “What it says is that access to arts
and creativity is a basic, like health and education.” The
Guardian (London) 07/26/00

AND
THE SQUEAKY
WHEEL… Arts Council Chairman Gerry Robinson has been
lobbying the government for an extra £100 million in arts
funding for months - and yesterday’s announcement proves
they heard him loud and clear. “He badgered the Prime Minister
and Chancellor to the point where, he believes, "I
seriously p***ed people off. At the end of the day, someone
like Blair or Brown will say, 'Oh, for Chrissakes just give
them the money.' "The
Telegraph (London) 07/26/00

THE
$543 LUNCH: Philadelphia restaurant critic goes for lunch
in New York's hot new restaurant. "It is enough to do a
triple take at the prices, even as you settle into the Brazilian
rosewood and gold-trimmed opulence of the dining room, with
its Neapolitan fabrics, polished black columns and exploding
rose bouquets. Did I just order a $50 appetizer? An $80 steak?
Coca-Cola for $8? Uh-huh." Philadelphia
Inquirer 07/26/00

Tuesday July 25

IDENTITY
ISSUES: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri (“Interpreter
of Maladies”) reflects on the elusive nature of identity politics
and the need of readers and critics alike to compartmentalize
authors. “Take, for instance, the various ways I am described:
as an American author, as an Indian-American author, as a British-born
author, as an Anglo-Indian author, as an NRI (non-resident Indian)
author, as an ABCD author (ABCD stands for American born confused
"desi"). According to Indian academics, I've written
something known as "Diaspora fiction"; in the U.S.,
it's "immigrant fiction." In a way, all of this amuses
me.” Feed
07/24/00

RIGHT
TO ALTER: When Charles M. Schulz retired from drawing "Peanuts"
he said no one else would ever draw the cartoon. But some recent
repeats of the strip have been altered adding current events references.
So when is it okay to change the work of a deceased artist?Intellectual
Capital 07/20/00

THE
SKY IS FALLING: "Beauty as presently defined is indistinguishable
from ugliness. Relativism is a contagion that makes judgment impossible.
As a consequence, anything goes, whether it’s dirty jeans, unkempt
starlets, or a fashion statement that emulates homelessness."
American Outlook 07/25/00

SURVIVOR:
Being the chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts is
a no-win job - the criticisms come from all sides. Jane Alexander's
big accomplishment in her time heading the Endowment was that
it managed to survive. But her naivete and growing anger about
the battles that had to be fought took their toll. Her memoir
of her term is a sad chronicle.New
York Times Book Review 07/23/00
(one-time registration required for entry)

Monday July 24

DO
WE HAVE TO MENTION THE SPONSOR? The Roundabout Theatre sold
its name to American Airlines. The Wintergarden almost had "Cadillac"
above the marquee. The arts love those corporate dollars. But
at what price?
Newsday 07/23/00

THE
VALUE OF AN ARTS EDUCATION: An article published in Australia
last week argued, in essence, "that Australian universities
are involved in the economically irrational overproduction of
students with the generalist degree in the humanities and social
sciences, the bachelor of arts." Yet at a time when students
are being convinced that education is for the primary purpose
of getting a job, the arts degree is still valuable.Sydney
Morning Herald 07/24/00

A
RESURGENCE IN BRITISH ART: "Despite the dreary, outdated
prejudices of some of our burnt-out critics, tabloid hacks and
politicians from all parties, it is clear that the arts, including
museums and galleries, have never been more interesting or more
popular and have never played such a significant role in national
life as they do today. Recent MORI research for the Arts Council
showed huge public support for the arts, with 78 per cent believing
that the arts play a valuable role in the life of the nation,
and 95 per cent believing that children should have more opportunities
to experience the arts at school."
New Statesman 07/24/00

ON
THE OTHER HAND: "The first task is to shift spending
away from institutions and into individuals and art itself.
What is the point of having some of the most well-appointed
theatres and galleries in Europe if there is nothing to put
on in them? Throughout the Thatcher years arts bureaucracy
grew while the work withered. That has to change."
The Guardian 07/24/00

BLAME
IT ON THE INTERNET: "People are feeling that since English
has become a dominant language through electronic technology,
there is less and less pragmatic use for knowing foreign languages.
We're seeing a loss of language teaching in the high schools...so
fewer and fewer students come to universities wanting to study
[languages]. It's a domino effect in many ways." Toronto
Globe and Mail 07/24/00

FIGHTING
FOR THE FRINGE: In what’s been hailed as a “virtuoso demonstration
of cultural leadership,” Brian McMaster has revitalized the Edinburgh
Festival since becoming director nine years ago. He “wooed back
the world-class ensembles, wowed the critics by staging daring
epics that no other impresario could risk; and still managed to
lift sponsorship and box office income to record levels.” London
Times 07/24/00

PATRONAGE
AMERICAN STYLE: American internet investor and opera lover
Alberto Vilar has donated $2 million to Milan’s La Scala - the
largest private non-European donation in the opera house’s history.
“He is now waging a sort of one-man campaign to bring U.S.-style
arts patronage to Europe at a time when governments are scaling
back their arts spending.”Yahoo!
News (Reuters) 07/23/00

Friday July 21

USHERING
IN THE TRUTH: Want to know the real theatre scoop? Talk to
the people who see it all - the ushers. "Indeed, perhaps
no one has seen the changes in theatre-and by extension, some
of the cultural shifts in the society at large-more vividly than
those doughty black-clad ushers who've been moving up and down
the aisles, flashlights in hand, for the long haul.
Backstage 07/20/00

REAL
REALITY? "Though it was never a part of the show's design,
'Big Brother' is broadcasting in prime time many of the unresolved
fears that stretch across the nation's racial divide. The series
already is being labeled groundbreaking television, with the raw
footage captured by the cameras that film around the clock generating
heated discussions in cafes and Internet chat rooms across the
country."
Los Angeles Times 07/20/00

WHAT
ABOUT THE HISTORY THAT NEVER HAPPENED? "Provisional history,
standby history, or simply outtakes: whatever the name, it denotes
an existential sphere that is vast and growing. Think of all the
newspaper stories that editors have decided to spike; the millions
of words that have been cut out of books; the miles of footage
yanked by directors from their movies. Think of all the caps,
manufactured but never sold, proclaiming the Buffalo Bills to
be the champions of Super Bowls XXV, XXVI, XXVII, and XXVIII."
The Atlantic 07/00

THE
BIG ORANGE: The Orange County Performing Arts Center posts
a record $700,000 surplus. "This is a phenomenal thing to
happen to a nonprofit performing arts center. We've had the most
performances we've ever had and incredible quality. To finish
this far ahead is extraordinary. We won't get these numbers again."
Orange County Register 07/21/00

THE
POPULARIZATION OF JAPAN: "Pop culture is big business
in Japan, with domestic 'J-Pop' alone racking up sales of nearly
¥40 billion ($373 million) a year. The most popular artists achieve
sales of nearly 10 million copies per album. Volumes of manga
(comics) as thick as telephone directories are read by children
and balding salarymen alike. The best loved, 'Shuppan Shonen
Magajin', sells 4 million copies a week." Now the rest
of Asia is catching the Japan-pop bug.
The Economist 07/21/00

Thursday July 20

WASHINGTON
DEBUT: Newly-named Kennedy Center director Michael Kaiser
"was presented to the press, patrons and politicians yesterday,
capped by a bipartisan dinner in the Capitol's Statuary Hall hosted
by the four leaders of Congress. The accolades were lavish; in
turn, the new arts center president promised to stay in the job
for at least five years, which would be 'longer than I've ever
been anywhere.' "Washington
Post 07/20/00

DEAD
CULTURE OR DEAD CRITICS? "Culture as this particular
academic knows it is dead, buried, reincarnated only to walk the
earth as a movie remake based on the original sitcom. The problem
isn't dummy art or the proliferation of immoral pop culture, or
even a house of mirrors assembly-line media. The problem resides
in the inability of the majority of those who comment on the arts
- journalists, academics, professional artists, producers, editors,
information-age cultural critics - to come to terms with emerging
new ways of living with and through mass culture.Toronto
Globe and Mail 07/20/00

EXPRESSION
VS SUPPRESSION : Korea’s artists, civic groups, and courts
are struggling through a morass of mixed opinions over what’s
considered art, and thus protected as free expression, and what’s
deemed obscene. Two of the country’s recent decisions: the release
of the popular movie “Lies” was postponed six months due to press
outrage over its sexual plotline. And this week Korea’s premier
cartoonist was fined $2.6 million for “encouraging misbehavior
in minors” in his strip.
Korea
Herald 07/20/00

HOW
MANY BANKERS DO YOU REALLY NEED? Does Australia have too many
students pursuing arts degrees? "A Centre for Independent
Studies report says universities are producing too many arts and
social science graduates, who lack employable skills."
The Australian 07/20/00

THE
GIANT BILLBOARDS TAKE OVER: In San Francisco, "the boom
in the dot-com industry and advances in digital imaging have led
to an explosion of 'wall-scapes' and dot-com billboards. And many
of them, industry and city officials say, are being hoisted without
proper permits."
San Francisco Chronicle 07/20/00

Wednesday July 19

CULTURE
ON THE BACK BURNER: From outside the country, at least, Britain
seems to be making a surge in the arts. But "we have a government
that tells us that it is pumping unprecedented amounts into the
arts, yet around the country the arts are in greater distress
than ever," writes Norman Lebrecht. Just how did the arts
fall in the UK's political agenda?
The Telegraph (London) 07/19/00

NEW
KENNEDY CENTER CHIEF: Michael Kaiser, who "helped rescue
Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London from a financial
crisis, is about to be named president of the Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts, a Kennedy Center official said." New
York Times 07/19/00 (one-time
registration required for entry

THE
MIRACLE MAN: "The Kennedy Center is very lucky,"
said dancer Susan Jaffe, a veteran company member of American
Ballet Theatre, one of four organizations Kaiser is credited
with rescuing from dire financial straits. "Not only
has he tremendous business savvy, but his passion for arts
has made him a miracle man."
Washington Post 07/19/00

Tuesday July 18

WHAT
BECOMES A WELL-ROUNDED CITIZEN? "As high-tech leaders
persistently, almost desperately, call for more educated workers,
the 'info-tainment' business that is rapidly absorbing the Internet
and all other media makes well-informed citizens even more rare
and unusual. The constant 'dumbing-down' and vulgarization of
the culture industry, driven by mass marketing and profits, is
clearly at odds with educational excellence, but few high-tech
leaders can bring themselves to admit their role in this depressing
decline."
Los Angeles Times 07/17/00

BEHIND
ANOTHER SELLARBRATION: He's America's oldest enfant terrible.
Peter Sellars is directing the next edition of Australia's Adelaide
Festival, and has already changed its focus from being the traditional
international potpourri to one concentrating on Aussie artists.
But before getting too excited about Sellars' plans it might be
instructive for Adelaidians to take a look at his track record...
The Idler 07/17/00

VALENCIA'S
MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR INVESTMENT IN CULTURE: The Spanish city
of Valencia is building Europe's most ambitious millennium project.
"At an all-in cost of £2 billion the project eclipses the
Dome in Greenwich and even the Getty in Los Angeles. The prodigious
investment provides Valencia with a spectacular new Science Museum,
an IMAX cinema, a music school, a magnificent new 1,800-seat opera
house, seven kilometres of promenades and two streamlined road
bridges."The Times
(London) 07/18/00

A
MATTER OF HISTORY: The roar of protest over the distortions
of history in the movie "The Patriot" has been deafening
in recent weeks as the movie opened in Britain. So what is up
with this month's Smithsonian
Magazine article trumpeting how it helped the movie-makers
get the details of history right? Has "the nation's attic"
sold its soul?
Washington Post 07/18/00

Monday July 17

NO
TIME FOR THIS: "In his new book, 'The End of Time: The
Next Revolution in Physics', Julian Barbour asserts that time
simply doesn't exist. This by itself is not so shocking. My friend
Artie, for example, has always insisted that there's only change,
not time. Things move around; time may just be a way of noting
that. But Barbour goes further. He says there's no such thing
as motion either. Instead, Barbour sees a universe filled with
static instants - instants that contain "records" that
fool any conscious beings who happen to find themselves encased
in one into believing that things have moved and time has passed."
Feed 07/15/00

YOU'RE
INCREDIBLY SMART IF YOU READ THIS: "We've become warier,
more ironic about praise in general. No one wants to seem like
a smarmy suck-up. No one wants to appear too earnest. The language
of superlatives has become worn out and phony. If Mike Ovitz is
a visionary, what does that make Charles Darwin? If Donald Trump
is charismatic, what does that make Martin Luther King? If every
flavor-of-the-month actress is brilliant, what do you tell your
seven-year-old daughter when she comes home with an 88 on her
spelling test?" Time
Europe 07/17/00

HOW
WE PAY FOR ART? Berlin is rebuilding, and signs of change
are everywhere - physical and cultural. "In Germany, where
government funding had never been an issue before, it seemed odd
to hear people complaining about how excessive subsidies were
creating an atmosphere of dependency and waste among their artistic
institutions." The
New Republic 07/15/00

BEAR
WITNESS: In recent years numerous museums and exhibitions
commemorating the Holocaust have sprung up. But some argue that
attempts to represent the Holocaust falsify it, making it an aesthetic
rather than a history. "On the other hand, however uncomfortable
academics may be with some of the popular representations of the
Holocaust, few would question that films such as 'Schindler's
List' and 'Life is Beautiful' have done more to raise public awareness
of the Holocaust than a thousand scholarly tomes."New Statesman
07/17/00

Sunday July 16

AN
ODE TO DIVERSITY: The word "diversity" is repeated
as a mantra by mainstream arts groups looking to expand their
audiences. A new report in Chicago has some words of advice for
arts groups trying diversify.
Chicago Tribune 07/16/00

SQUATTERS'
RIGHTS? In the 1960s a group of artists took over an abandoned
ruined hill town in Italy and over the next 40 years made it into
something of an artists colony/tourist attraction. Now the Italian
wants to evict the artists and restore the town to a ruin.The Independent
(London) 07/16/00

"ENTERTAINMENT"
BAN: Canadian news and documentary crews say that for the
past two years American immigration officers have made it difficult
for them to get into the US. Many crews have been denied entry.
"Officials in the U.S. say they are enforcing a policy which
allows them to bar foreign film crews who want to shoot 'commercial
entertainment' in the US But Canadians say the policy is being
widely used to delay film crews working on 'information programs.'
"CBC
07/16/00

Friday July 14

THE
RELENTLESS MARCH OF THE DOT-COMMIES: Dozens of San Francisco
arts organizations and hundreds of artists have lost their leases
as the city's landlords go after dot-com tenants. By one count,
half the city's remaining arts organizations' leases are up for
renewal this year. San
Francisco Bay-Guardian 07/13/00

DOT-PATRONS?
"Think of the impact a handful of newly minted multimillionaires
could have on the local arts scene if they pooled just a bit of
their dough. I'd like to propose a new kind of Rockefeller institution:
A dot-com coalition of rich citizens dedicated to giving money
back to the arts community that they are (unintentionally) helping
evict."Salon
07/14/00

Thursday July 13

WHAT
DOES AN AUSTRALIAN ARTS CONSUMER LOOK LIKE? A new survey paints
the picture. The study, which covered 1991-99, shows that each
Victorian household spends about $25 a week on cultural pursuits
and indicates what culture Aussies prefer to consume. The
Age (Melbourne) 07/13/00

BUY
CANADIAN: Canada has elaborate tax-credit laws used to encourage
use of Canadian content in the movie and TV industries. But a
new audit reveals that up to a third of the companies that took
advantage of the tax breaks in the province of Quebec deliberately
or accidentally misrepresented their labor and production costs.National
Post (Canada) 07/13/00

ODE
TO GEEKS: Geeks are getting a lot of attention these days.
"Some constants emerge from geek studies. Geeks are almost
always depicted as deficient in traditional social skills but
as possessing some special gift or talent in recompense. Writers
tend to be divided over which side of this equation should be
emphasized (usually to the exclusion of the other). Some fear
that the spread of geekdom means an irreparable hole is being
torn in the social fabric; others see geekdom as a less hidebound
and authoritarian society in the making."The Atlantic
Unbound 07/00

Wednesday July 12

THE
ART WORLD'S NOBEL: Two American and three European artists
(composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, architect Richard Rogers,
sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, composer Hans Werner Henze, and
painter Ellsworth Kelly) received the Japan Art Association's
Praemium Imperiale Award Tuesday. The lifetime achievement prizes
are among the largest in the arts world, and come with a
stipend of $140,000. New
York Times 07/12/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)

GOING
PUBLIC: The musicians' coalition Artists Against Piracy kicked
off its national campaign against copyright infringement with
full-page ads in five major U.S. newspapers. "If A Song Means
A Lot To You, Imagine What It Means To Us" read the headline,
above a list of 68 musicians in favor of protecting their music
through stricter copyright-law enforcement. Billboard
07/11/00

Monday July 10

"WORSE
THAN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION": China's booming tourist
industry is threatening most of its precious cultural heritage
and natural beauty, according to experts at a heritage preservation
conference sponsored jointly by the government, the World Bank
and UNESCO in Beijing last week.China
Times (Taiwan) 07/10/00

BEHIND
THE BUBBLE: At a cost of $360 million, Beijing's Grand National
Opera House, now under construction, figured to be controversial.
Its bubble shape and the fact it wasn't designed by a Chinese
architect makes for a triple whammy. But the real battle here
is for the soul of the capital - protests erupt as old Beijing
is cleared away to make room for the new.
Washington Post 07/09/00

THE
POLITICS OF GIVING MONEY AWAY: The MacArthur Foundation takes
a breath to consider how it wants to spend its money. The so-called
"genius" grants "symbolize how we would like to
be known in the world - as a place that pays attention to releasing
the potential of people."
Chronicle of Higher Education 07/10/00

Sunday July 9

ARTISTS
AND THE NEW ECONOMY: "For the first time since the 18th
Century, some observers believe, the arts world is poised on the
edge of a massive shift in the way artists earn their keep. Nudged
by the Internet and other technologies, a new paradigm is evolving,
one that may render irrelevant the familiar quarrel over government
funding of the arts." Chicago
Tribune 07/09/00

SAME
OLD STORY/NEW STANZA: Ireland is hot right now, and after
decades of depression Dublin is roaring to life economically.
But artists are getting squeezed out. "The opportunities
for getting a studio space in the city are decreasing," adds
painter Mark Pepper, also from the Visual Arts Centre. "The
commercial rents property owners can get for buildings now are
huge, and artists can't afford those rates."
The Irish Times 07/09/00

SAVING
THE VIENNA FESTIVAL: After international protests over Austria's
inclusion of Jörg Haider's right-wing Austrian Freedom Party in
Austrian government, organizers of the Vienna Festival feared
a disruption in this summer's festival. But after issuing
an open letter strongly condemning Haider and the government's
inclusion of him, and appealing to artists not to boycott, the
festival has gone on as usual. New
York Times 07/09/00(one-time
registration required for entry)

Friday July 7

NEW
LIFE FOR DOOMED DOME: What to do with London's boondoggled
Millennium Dome now that the government has decided to sell it?
As of now there are three contenders to take over the billion-dollar
bust: a Japanese-backed company that would continue the current
programming, the BBC, which, in partnership with Tussaud's, would
turn it into a theme park based on BBC TV characters, and a business
group that wants to "strip out the current content and turn
the site into London's silicon valley." BBC
07/07/00

Thursday July 6

INFORMATION
OVERLOAD: "Our ability to generate information has outpaced
our ability to comprehend it. We're driven to make sense of it
all, to shape and sort and classify information into systems we
can use. From the days of writing on cave walls to the creation
of XML, we've tried to do a better job of comprehending the information
at hand. The thing is, we've become so good at creating information
that it's piling up faster than promises in a political campaign."*spark-online
07/00

Wednesday July 5

NO-BROW
CULTURE: What really sustained the old distinctions between
good taste and bad, high culture and low? What sustains them now?
They can be, and have been, criticized. Were the cultural distinctions
of yore merely "an upstairs downstairs affair … arranged
to protect the real artists from the ravages of the commercial
market place?" Boston
Review Summer 00

THE
EVILS OF GLOBALIZATION: The globalization of culture is accelerating
at an alarming rate. "Through globalisation, people lose
their local cultural identity and political autonomy; but sometimes
they rid themselves of local fascists and thugs, isolation, poverty
and ignorance. With good and bad homogenised thus, globalisation
seems to negate all moral conscience. Globalisation also puts
a new twist on critical terms like cultural imperialism, orientalism
and colonisation." The
Age (Melbourne) 07/05/00

ARTS
AT ANY COST: The price of going to an arts event went up 10
percent over the weekend throughout Australia as the country adopted
a GST tax. But the sudden increase doesn't seem to have affected
ticket sales.Sydney
Morning Herald 07/05/00

Tuesday July 4

THE
PARIS OF THE MIDWEST? Chicago's Mayor Richard Daly has been
traveling to Europe. And thinking that what his city needs is
a little bit of Europe. He's proposed a London-style theatre district
downtown, borrowed the downtown art cow idea from the Swiss, and
proposed Venetian gondolas for the city's waterways. What's next?Chicago
Tribune 07/04/00

Monday July 3

CALIFORNIA
ARTS COMMISSION GETS BIG INCREASE: Legislature gives arts
commission $12 million increase. The additional funds raise the
council's annual budget from $20 million to $32 million and bring
California's state arts spending to 92 cents per capita. The increase
propels California from 42nd place into the top 25 states in the
nation.Los
Angeles Times 07/03/00

Sunday July 2

REBUILDING
ART AFTER WAR: "Croatia remained largely peaceful during
the second half of the 1990's, but the earlier Balkan wars left
a mark on the nation's cultural life. Its once-lucrative $4 billion-a-year
tourist industry and vibrant artistic scene - almost destroyed
through the mobilization of a large part of the male population,
emigration and civil unrest - have only recently shown signs of
recovery."New York
Times 07/02/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)